Poll: Home sales dropped sharply. Do you think South Florida’s housing market is slowing?
South Florida’s home sales plummeted last year, indicating the arrival of a long-awaited slowdown in activity. The numbers tell one story, but the Miami Herald wants to hear what readers think about the new housing trend.
Both Miami-Dade and Broward counties saw total residential sales plummet last year compared to 2021, according to the Miami Association of Realtors’ latest housing sales report.
Miami-Dade recorded 32,627 single-family house and condominium sales last year, a 20% drop from 39,394 sales in 2021. Broward experienced a similar trend with 32,573 sales last year, down 19% from 40,423 in 2021. The feeble activity marks a departure from high sales volume and historic sales prices that defined South Florida during the ongoing pandemic.
We want to hear from readers about this in our latest poll: Do you believe South Florida’s market is cooling down?
Rising interest rates throughout 2022 threw a wrench into the robust home sales activity in the region last year. As of Monday, Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage lender and secondary market buyer, reported an average 30-year mortgage rate of 6.15%, nearly double the 3.56% rate from a year ago.
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Real estate experts predict a lot of changes in the housing market this year. Interest rates are only expected to climb higher and that means more buyers will wait on the sidelines. The slowdown in the housing buying spree will eventually lead to sales prices slightly decreasing or standing steady. That means good news for prospective buyers who have been waiting for months — even years — to buy.
